The Randolph-Macon baseball team faced a big mid-season test this past week only to come away with failing grades. It was not any easy stretch by any means as R-MC took on the three top ODAC teams, Lynchburg, Va. Wesleyan and Bridgewater, in consecutive matchups. But the Yellow Jackets were hoping to come away with more than a 2-3 mark in the end.

  Coming into the stretch with a 6-0 ODAC record, R-MC Coach Ray Hedrick took an optimistic approach to the schedule. “A week ago I’d have told you that I would have taken three out of five between Bridgewater, Virginia Wesleyan and Lynchburg,” he said.

  But that cautious approach changed after an early R-MC sweep. “We sweep Lynchburg on the road and now you get greedy, you’d like to take four out of five,” he said. Instead the Jackets lost their next three games.

  However, it does not take an in depth investigation as to why R-MC lost.  “We made 11 errors in five games this week,” Hedrick said. “We won 14-3 in a game where we didn’t make any errors. The point is, we’re beating ourselves and that’s easy. If we can fix that we’re going to be fine.”

  In 19 games this season, R-MC is averaging 4.42 errors per game and those miscues were most costly on Saturday against defending ODAC champion Bridgewater.

  There’s no question that the near capacity crowd got their fill of excitement even though half of those baseball fans walked away disappointed.

  Each game came down to the final play in the final inning to determine the winner.

  In the opener, R-MC trailed the Eagles 4-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth but Peter Culver’s lead-off single up the middle gave the Jackets hope. Culver advanced on a wild pitch and Brian Jordan’s (Goochland) single to right put runners on the corners with no outs.

  A sacrifice bunt by Greg Mitro allowed Culver to take home then Jordan sent the game into an extra inning on Jordan Walton (Lee-Davis) single to right.

  With one out in the top of the 10th, Bridgewater first baseman Andrew Hacker (Lee-Davis) singled to left, and that should have been the extent of the Eagle offense. Bridgewater’s Alex Nuttycombe hit what appeared to be a textbook double-play ball back to pitcher James Bierlein that would have closed out the side. But Bierlein’s throw to second was wide putting a pair of runners on.

  “Game one we have a routine double-play ball and we turn that it’s a different game,” Hedrick said. “We might win both.”

  Bierlein then compounded matters by hitting Bryan Sanderson to load the bags. A walk of Kevin Kirk scored a run then a double to left by Jonathan Mason drove in three more to give Bridgewater a 8-4 lead.

  R-MC’s Cory Jackson (Patrick Henry) singled then later reached home in the bottom of the 10th but it was too little, too late.

  With the Jackets’ Michael Helbig on the mound for the second game, neither team managed much offense until the third inning when each scored.

  With the game tied 1-1, R-MC took the lead in the bottom of the fifth when Jeb Weymouth (Hanover) blistered a shot down the left field line to drive in Bierlein.

  The score remained the same until the top of the seventh when the error bug bit the Jackets again.

  Dustin Arrowood led off with a double to center for the Eagles then reached home when Nuttycombe’s grounder caromed off the foot of Culver at short. Nuttycombe later scored on a wild pitch and Snow added one more for a 4-2 Eagle lead.

  R-MC cut the margin in half in the bottom of the eighth when Weymouth drilled a homer over the right field fence to pull the Jackets within one, 3-4.

  It appeared the Jackets were in good shape to take the win in the bottom of the ninth when Culver singled to short and advanced on a sacrifice bunt from Digby. Beirlein sent a shot under the glove of third baseman Jay Thompson which put Jacket runners on second and third.

  With two out, Mitro stepped to the plate and nailed, what appeared to be, the game winning shot to the right field line, but Kirk made an amazing diving catch to snatch away victory for his Eagles.

  Bridgewater Coach Curt Kendall was pleased with the way his team stepped up in a big-game atmosphere.

  “This is tournament level games,” he said. “We knew they’d be two hard fought games just like you were playing in the tournament and it could go either way. That’s pretty much how they were.”

  Picking up the pair of ODAC wins over R-MC puts Bridgewater firmly in first place, a game and half up on Lynchburg and W & L and two games up on the Jackets.

  “To go away with two is a plus because you kind of help yourself conference-wise,” Kendall said. “You’ve got room for making some mistakes. Hopefully we don’t make too many of them the rest of the way but you put yourself in good position sweeping these guys.”

  The game also marked another enjoyable return to Hanover County by Hacker, a Lee-Davis alum. “It feels great I know pretty much everybody on the Randolph-Macon team,” he said. “They’ve got a really nice team so we just came out here and tried to get two and it felt great to actually get it.”

  For Hedrick it was no surprise that the Jackets had a chance to win each game in the final at-bat.

  “I tell the guys all the time, 98 percent of the time we’re going to have chances to win games late,” he said. “I just tell our guys, good teams are in it, great teams make their own breaks… When you’re not playing well, when you’re not doing the little things well, breaks generally don’t go your way.”

  Likewise the path back to success is clear for the Jackets. “It’s not like we’re pulling our hair out,” Hedrick said. “We’re hitting so well. We’re playing mistake free baseball. We’re pitching it. We’re keeping teams under five runs. Why aren’t we winning. It’s obvious why we’re not winning. We’re making too many mistakes whether it be base running mistakes, not executing on offense, defensive mistakes, which were the big ones today.”

Bridgewater 4, Randolph-Macon 3 (Game 2)
Bridgewater….. 001 000 300 -  4 8 1    
(12-10, 7-0 ODAC)
R-MC…........... 001 010 010 -  3 10 2    
(10-9, 6-3 ODAC)
Pitchers: Bridgewater - K. Chandler. Randolph-Macon - Michael Helbig; Kevin Soltis(8).
Win-K. Chandler(3-0)  Loss-Michael Helbig(4-2)  T-2:30 A-176
HR RMC - Jeb Weymouth.
Weather: Clear, Upper 60’s
Game: RMCBC2

Bridgewater 8, Randolph-Macon 5 (Game 1)
Bridgewater. 000 011 101 4 -  8 14 1
R-MC…......... 100 000 102 1 -  5 11 3
Pitchers: Bridgewater - Joseph Lucas; T. Milstead(7); Kyle Henshaw(10); T. Slanovec(10).
Randolph-Macon - Jamie Hendrick; Dale Langford(7); James Bierlein(10).
Win-T. Milstead(4-1)  Loss-James Bierlein(0-3)  T-2:50 A-176
Weather: Clear, Upper 60’s